Book chronicles US Federal Government

Redlands, USA, 24 February 2007 – ‘Standards for Success: GIS for Federal Progress and Accountability’ recounts how GIS technology helps United States federal agencies streamline work and save money while tackling diverse projects such as monitoring volcanoes and managing forests.

This latest book from ESRI Press presents more than a dozen case studies showing how GIS sped up the analysis process, made sharing information easier, and presented a clearer picture of problems and options to solve them.

Standards for Success details how agencies such as the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully use GIS in aspects of their work that require geospatial analysis. For example, the Geological Survey’s Volcano Hazards Program adopted GIS, in part, to produce maps that show and analyze potentially dangerous volcanoes and hazardous areas such as Mount St. Helen’s in Washington. The Forest Service employs GIS to help manage forests on private land. The EPA uses a Web-based GIS tool to map contaminant risks in water supplies.

ESRI Government Solutions manager Christopher Thomas edited the book, which is filled with examples of how government organizations turn to GIS for creative solutions to often pressing concerns. For example at Dyess Air Force Base in Texas, setting up a new GIS-based system of tracking trash containers trimmed labor costs by 90 percent. At NASA’s Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, GIS serves many purposes, including creating up-to-date maps that show locations of hazardous materials and emergency equipment in buildings.

Standards for Success: GIS for Federal Progress and Accountability (ISBN 978-1-58948-047-6, 112 pages, $24.95) gives detailed examples of how each agency uses GIS software and, in several cases, quantifies how much time and how many resources were saved using geospatial analysis technology. This information will help readers better assess how GIS could best work for their agencies.

The book is available at online retailers and bookstores worldwide or can be purchased at www.esri.com/esripress or by calling 1-800-447-9778. Outside the United States, contact your local ESRI distributor. Visit www.esri.com/international for a current distributor list. ESRI Press books are distributed to the trade by Ingram Publisher Services. visit www.ingrampublisherservices.com.

– About ESRI PressESRI Press publishes books on GIS, cartography, and the application of spatial analysis to many areas of public and private endeavor including land-use planning, health care, education, business, government, science, and many others. The complete selection of GIS titles from ESRI Press can be found on the Web at www.esri.com/esripress.